Jungle Cat - Taxonomic History

Taxonomic History

Subsequent to Güldenstädt’s first description of Felis chaus, various naturalists published descriptions of jungle cat skins from west and further southeast of the Caucasus between 1811 and 1939. Using the scientific name Felis catolynx the German explorer Peter Simon Pallas described lynx-like cats in 1811, which inhabit the reeds and subalpine forests around the Terek River through northern Persia up to the Aral Sea. In the 1820s the German explorer Rüppell collected a female Felis Chaus near Lake Manzala in the Nile Delta. But only in 1832, Brandt recognized the distinctness of the Egyptian jungle cat and proposed the name Felis Rüppelii.

Thomas Hardwicke’s collection of illustrations of Indian wildlife comprises the first drawing of an Indian jungle cat named the "Allied cat" Felis affinis by Gray in 1830. Two years later, a stuffed cat was presented at a meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal that had been caught in the jungles of Midnapore in West Bengal. Pearson who donated the specimen described it as different in colour from Felis chaus and proposed the name Felis kutas. In 1836, Hodgson proclaimed the red-eared cat commonly found in Nepal to be a lynx and therefore named it Lynchus Erythrotus. In 1844, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire described a jungle cat from the area of Dehra Dun in northern India under the name Felis jacquemontii in reminiscence of the French explorer Victor Jacquemont. When the Ceylonese naturalist Kelaart described the first Felis chaus skin from Sri Lanka in 1852, he emphasised its close resemblance to Hodgson's Lynchus erythrotus.

The Russian naturalist Severtzov proposed the generic name Catolynx in 1858.The Austrian zoologist Fitzinger proposed the scientific name Chaus Catolynx for the "swamp lynx" in 1869. Also Blanford pointed out the lynx-like appearance of cat skins and skulls from the plains around Yarkand and Kashgar when he described Felis Shawiana in 1876. The German naturalist Grevé proposed the subgenus Lynx Chaus in 1895.

In 1898, the British zoologist de Winton examined the collection of jungle cat skins in the Natural History Museum and revised taxonomic assessments of the jungle cat group. He proposed to subordinate the specimens from the Caucasus, Persia and Turkestan to Felis chaus typica, and regrouped the lighter built specimens from the Indian subcontinent to Felis chaus affinis. He renamed the Egyptian jungle cat Felis chaus nilotica as the name Felis Rüppelii was already applied to a different cat. A single skin collected near Jericho in 1864 prompted him to describe the new subspecies Felis chaus furax as this skin was smaller than other Egyptian jungle cat skins. A few years later, the German zoologist Nehring also described a jungle cat skin collected in Palestine, which he named Lynx chrysomelanotis.

In the 1880s, mammal skins were collected during an expedition to Afghanistan and presented to the Indian Museum. One cat skin without skull from the area of Maimanah was initially identified as of Felis caudata, but in the absence of skins for comparison the author was not sure whether his identification is correct. In his revision of Asian wildcat skins collected in the Zoological Museum of Berlin, the German zoologist Zukowsky reassessed the Maimanah cat skin, and because of its larger size and shorter tail than caudata skins proposed a new species with the name Felis (Felis) maimanah.

The British zoologist Pocock reviewed the generic nomenclature of the Felidae in 1917 and classified the jungle cat group as part of the genus Felis, which is characterized by broad heads, reduced rhinarium, pointed ears, vertically contracted ocular pupil and narrow paws. When the mammal collector of the Natural History Museum Thomas described the first jungle cat from Annam in 1928 he consented with Pocock and referred to Gray’s “Allied cat” by naming it Felis affinis fulvidina.

In the 1930s, Pocock reviewed the Natural History Museum's jungle cat skins and skulls from British India and adjacent countries. Based mainly on differences in fur length and colour he subordinated the specimens from Turkestan to Balochistan to Felis chaus chaus, the Himalayan ones to Felis chaus affinis, the ones from Cutch to Bengal under Felis chaus kutas, and the tawnier ones from Burma under Felis chaus fulvidina. He newly described six larger skins from Sind under the trinomen Felis chaus prateri, and skins with shorter coats from Sri Lanka and southern India under Felis chaus kelaarti.

Results of an mtDNA analysis of 55 jungle cats from various biogeographic zones in India indicate a high genetic variation and a relatively low differentiation between populations. It appears that the Central Indian F. c. kutas population separates the Thar F. c. prateri populations from the rest and also the South Indian F. c. kelaarti populations from the North Indian F. c. affinis ones. The Central Indian populations are genetically closer to the southern than to the northern populations.